1. Quality of life in European cities
By Lewis Dijkstra
Deputy Head of Unit
Policy Development and Economic Analysis Unit,
DG Regional and Urban Policy
European Commission 1

2. Strength of the city survey
Unique source of information
Media coverage is very high
Underexploited resource
Coordination with other surveys and actors is low
Some methodological issues with regard to sampling and questions

3. Current set up Managed by the Urban Unit
Contracted out through the Eurobarometer framework contract
Every three years
Covers around 79 cities in EU, NO, CH, IS, TR
Questions decided by DG COMM/REGIO with sometimes last minute changes

4. New set up Managed by B1, Economic analysis unit Open Call for tender
Every three years
Covers at least the same cities
Always at the greater city level if there is one
Questions determined a year ahead of time by REGIO/ESTAT/NUACs

5. Timeline
May 2017 Launch of online EU survey to get feedback on the questions from
NUACs
ESTAT
Commission colleagues with an interest in city level indicators
Other urban level actors? Eurocities…
Finalisation of the questionnaire Oct 2017
Survey conducted Oct 2018